- Ensuring year-round availability of irrigation water is prime responsibility of government
Pakistan’s agricultural sector continues to be held hostage by an unforgivable policy failure — the inability to provide consistent irrigation water to farmers throughout the year. Despite possessing one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world, the country remains caught in a perpetual cycle of droughts and floods. One season, farmers watch their crops wither under a scorching sun; the next, they watch them drown in raging torrents. Both outcomes stem from one root cause: criminal neglect in maintaining, expanding, and modernizing Pakistan’s irrigation infrastructure.
Mirage of Abundance
Every few years, the government proudly claims that Pakistan’s river system provides enough water to irrigate millions of acres. On paper, that may be true. In practice, the system leaks — literally and institutionally. Almost 40 percent of canal water is lost due to seepage, theft, and poor maintenance. What was once celebrated as the lifeline of the Indus Basin has been reduced to a patchwork of crumbling embankments, outdated barrages, and politically influenced water allocations.
Instead of modernizing this critical system, successive governments have resorted to cosmetic projects and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Meanwhile, small farmers at the tail end of canals continue to receive erratic water supplies, forcing them either to abandon cultivation or depend on expensive tube-well pumping. Water inequality has become a structural curse: large landowners near the headworks prosper while smallholders downstream suffer in silence.
Water Storage Facilities
Pakistan’s biggest tragedy is its failure to build new water storage facilities despite decades of debate. The country has barely enough storage capacity to sustain agriculture for a month, as compared to the global average of 90 days. This acute vulnerability means that any delay in monsoon rains or sudden glacier melt immediately translates into crisis.
Every administration has promised to build dams and reservoirs, but none has delivered beyond paperwork, feasibility studies, and political slogans. Kalabagh remains a casualty of provincial discord, while other mid-sized dam projects move at a snail’s pace. Instead of constructing even small reservoirs to store seasonal runoff, governments prefer to spend billions on emergency imports of wheat when floods or droughts disrupt production. This is not mismanagement — it is policy paralysis.
Fragile Web of Water Channels
The extensive network of canals and distributaries that once made Pakistan the envy of the developing world now lies in disrepair. Decades of siltation, illegal encroachments, and lack of desilting have severely reduced their carrying capacity. Many water channels were built during the British era and have since received little more than patchwork repairs. With each passing year, their efficiency declines, leading to waterlogging in some areas and acute shortages in others.
The annual “desilting campaigns” announced by provincial irrigation departments are more about budget utilization than actual maintenance.
Contractors earn, politicians claim credit, and farmers continue to suffer. Equally damaging is the absence of digital monitoring or real-time water flow measurement. Without accurate data, theft and manipulation thrive.
The World Bank’s repeated recommendations for telemetry systems and community-based water management remain largely ignored.
Floods Recurring Self-Inflicted Disaster
When droughts are not destroying livelihoods, floods take their turn. The pattern is predictable — heavy monsoon rains overwhelm poorly maintained embankments, causing breaches that inundate entire villages. The 2010 super floods and those that followed in 2022 exposed the same underlying problem: lack of preparedness, absence of drainage plans, and blatant disregard for environmental management.
Each time, the government scrambles to form committees, announce compensation, and seek international aid. Yet, once the waters recede, so does the political interest. No lessons are learned, no accountability is enforced. Billions are spent on “rehabilitation,” but very little on prevention. Farmers pay the price twice — first by losing their crops and livestock, and again by facing inflated food prices in the aftermath.
Depleting World’s Largest Irrigation System
Pakistan’s irrigation network — the largest man-made system on the planet — should have been a source of national pride and prosperity. Instead, it has become a symbol of chronic neglect. From the Indus River down to the smallest distributary, mismanagement is institutionalized. Water distribution remains opaque, maintenance funds are routinely diverted, and irrigation departments are rife with inefficiency.
The absence of coordinated policy between federal and provincial governments further complicates matters. After the 18th Amendment, water management became a provincial subject, but without corresponding capacity building or oversight. The result is fragmented decision-making and duplication of effort. Instead of one cohesive water management policy, Pakistan now has several conflicting ones, none of which are effectively implemented.
Way Forward
If Pakistan genuinely seeks food and economic security, water management must move from rhetoric to the center of national policy. The following reforms are no longer optional — they are imperative:
- Develop new water storage facilities — large and small — through an accelerated, transparent, and province-inclusive program. Without additional storage, water scarcity will turn catastrophic.
- Modernize canal and distributary networks with proper desilting, digital monitoring, and community-led maintenance models to curb theft and wastage.
- Launch a national flood and drought resilience plan focused on prevention, not just relief, integrating drainage infrastructure with land-use planning.
- Establish a National Water Regulatory Authority empowered to oversee inter-provincial coordination, ensure equitable water distribution, and enforce accountability in irrigation management.
Pakistan cannot continue oscillating between drought and deluge. The failure to maintain and expand the irrigation network is not just an agricultural issue — it is a national survival challenge. Unless the government acts decisively to restore the integrity of its water system, it will condemn millions of farmers to uncertainty and the economy to stagnation. The time for speeches has passed; it is time to rebuild the veins that keep this nation alive.